The Contemplative Companion for Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Jesus said to his disciples: 
“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.   – Luke 12. 35 – 37a

Though the language is out-dated, we get the mid-drift!

Over centuries of interpretation, lot’s of ideas abound about what Jesus means by “girding loins” and “lighting lamps”. One can develop many analogies, if so inspired.

Perhaps a different approach, is to ask the question: How am I vigilant right now?

Another question to ponder is: What are the different levels of possible meaning behind the word “master”?

One way to answer that question is like this: “master” represents that in you which is the next level/phase of development along the spiritual journey. The next level of integration, wholeness, and – let the reader understand – perfection, completion.

With that in mind, vigilance then, is the willingness to participate in and remain on the journey of development and transformation: to continue to say Yes to that which is asked of us. Such consent may require letting go of that which was prior, and even very consoling and comfortable, to receive the new and unknown. Such passages of spiritual development are often “crisis of faith”, since what we are asked to let go of, often seems to be our very connection to God, even our self, as we knew God and self from that level/lens.

Then, lo and behold, by a hidden grace infused throughout everything, we discover that a new understanding emerges, similar but different from the earlier level; always deeper.

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